As I debated with myself about an outline to use tonight a couple things came to mind. There are several of things mentioned in our text which could have become specific points – “His mother Mary,” and “Mary, thy wife.” Then we could add some things mentioned in Luke, such as “thou that art highly favoured.” We could call her “Elizabeth’s cousin.” Mother, wife, cousin, favoured of God – a pretty good outline. One of the really wild ideas which came to my mind was to use I Timothy 3:16. In speaking about Jesus Paul said, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” We could tie in the word “Emmanuel” – God manifest in the flesh – to Mary. Then, I believe that Mary was justified in the Spirit. She was visited by angels. But sadly, she has been falsely preached unto Gentiles and trusted as a false saviour. Furthermore it is taught that she didn’t die, but was especially received up into glory. That would make for an interesting outline and message, but I’m afraid that I’m not smart enough to pull it all together without really confusing someone. So I’m going with another rather mundane outline that I developed. At least it has a bit of alliteration. Let’s think about Mary’s family, her faith and favor, her faithfulness, and some fables.
Some of the differences, although real, aren’t that significant. For example, Joseph’s lineage goes through David into Solomon, of her that had been the wife of Uriah. But Mary’s line passes from David through his son Nathan. I would like to think that David honored one of God’s prophets by giving the son, born just prior to Solomon, the name the godly man who awakened David to his sin. It was Nathan who so sharply rebuked David in regard to Uriah and Bathsheba. Solomon and Nathan may have been born within a few months of each other. Then obviously with that divergence comes a line of different names until the time of the Lord Jesus.
But then in the family of Mary, there is Elizabeth, her Judean cousin. “There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years.” I won’t begin to profess an understanding of Jewish social customs at that time in history. But it appears that there wasn’t as much consistency about marrying within a person’s own tribe. Elizabeth, as a cousin of Mary, was probably from the tribe of Judah, as was David, Solomon and Nathan. But she had married a Levite – a priest. This was not a bad thing, but it was not common earlier in Israel’s history. The scriptures tell us that they were both “blameless,” a synonym for “godly.” They were “well-stricken in years,” and I would like to assume that they must have been older than me. Mary was not twenty-years-old, and yet she was particularly close to her elderly cousin. And this makes me curious about Mary’s more immediate family. There is no mention of father or mother, sisters or brothers, although that doesn’t prove anything. Was Elizabeth part of the reason that Mary was as godly and well-taught in the scriptures as she was?
Six months after Elizabeth became pregnant, Gabriel was sent to Mary with God’s very special news. “And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda; and entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth.” Immediately the unborn child of Elizabeth leaped – jumped for joy at the arrival of his Saviour. Who says that babies have no life or independence until they are born? “And Mary abode with her about three months, and returned to her own house.” She returned home to Nazareth either just before or just after the birth of her distant nephew John.
Can you imagine what those three months were like? Was Elizabeth the “mother” who taught Mary about pregnancy, child-birth and baby-care. Or was it the other way around, since neither woman had given birth before? Perhaps those months were more filled with talk about the things of God than things about the nursery.
However that time was spent, and no matter how much time was later spent together, Elizabeth was in important part of Mary’s life, when she desperately needed a good friend. How important it is to have understanding friends and loved-ones.
One thing said of her was that she was “favored by God.” “In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph… And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.” Would you like to make a guess as to the Greek word translated “favour?” If you guessed “charis” (khar’-ece) you would be correct. It is translated “favour” six times and “grace” one hundred thirty times. Mary was the mother of Jesus, and a child of God, because the Lord had been gracious towards her.
I believe that Mary had a saving faith in Christ, but that was not the only kind of faith that she possessed. She had both faith in Jehovah and in Christ Jesus specifically. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t weak at times, or that it didn’t grow and mature over time. Gabriel stood before this young lady and told her that she was going to be the mother of the Son of God. She was no fool, she knew how this worked, “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?” So the angel told her that the Holy Spirit will make it happen. And what did she say? “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.” That was all it took. Some would call it stupidity, and some would call it gullibility. I call it faith.
When Mary arrived in Bethlehem to spend some time with Elizabeth, both women were filled with joy, faith and the Holy Spirit. Elizabeth, lead by the Spirit, uttered the words of a benediction, and Mary responded in the Spirit. Every word of that so-called “magnificat” carries the womanly perfume of solid faith in God.
Luke 2 is filled either with Mary’s faith or fuel for furthering Mary’s faith. All the events of the birth itself – the light, angels, music, shepherds. Did the shepherds tell the baby’s parents about what they had seen and heard out there on the hill side? Eight days later the couple made the trip into Jerusalem to present themselves and their son to the Lord. They were met by the godly priest Simeon, and then there was the prophetess Anna. “Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.” An unbeliever might say that Mary couldn’t believe what they were saying, but I am convinced that her faith was sustained and strengthened by their faith.
I won’t try to tell you that Mary’s faith was perfect. There were things in her life, which she might have eventually regretted and wished she could withdraw. But there were plenty of things which lift her faith above the faith of most others – even the disciples. In John 2, early in the Saviour’s ministry, Jesus, the disciples and his family were invited to a wedding. It was a town not far from Nazareth, and may have been that of a relative or friend of the family. Perhaps the presence of Jesus increased the number of guests beyond what the groom was expecting. Whatever the cause, the party quickly ran out of wine. Mary brought that to the attention of her Son, and it appears that she expected Him to do something. Even after his slight rebuke, she told the servants to do whatever he told them. I can’t say that the miracle of the wine, was in response to his mother’s faith, but a notable miracle was performed, and it appears that Mary’s was expecting the unusual.
Later during His ministry, Jesus established His church and authorized His disciples to evangelize the world. On the first Pentecost after His crucifixion, those disciples and the rest of the church were gathered together in prayer. There was Mary in the midst of them, not as an icon, a leader, or one rallying the troops, but as a humble servant and worshiper of Christ. She was a woman of faith.
She was certainly the mother that the baby and child Jesus needed during his early years. Of course, Jesus was different from any other baby ever to come into this world. No child ever understands the sacrifice that his mother makes for him before he reaches the age of five. Jesus may have been the exception to the rule. At the same time, he may have placed more stress upon his mother than any child ever born. But Mary was faithful to her motherly duties toward all her children. Fore example, she and Joseph had Jesus circumcised and presented him to the Lord in the Temple. And although we don’t know the number of times that they traveled to Jerusalem for the feasts, there is evidence that before Joseph’s passing they were faithful in this.
But I’m thinking about her faithfulness to the Lord her God. Throughout the history of Jesus’ ministry, she keeps popping up. We must remember that she had a family of several children, and they lived in Galilee. Only periodically do we find Mary in Jerusalem while Jesus was ministering there.
But there she was at the crucifixion. Was she there as a mother, as a servant of God, or as a worshiper of Christ? Perhaps as her children grew up, she eventually had more time to follow the Lord to certain places. Or could it be that Mary was in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus’ death, because it was the Passover and that was where believers were supposed to be? I think that she was an example of the believers and that she didn’t let anyone despise her for her gender or her physical relationship to Jesus.
And again, there she was there at the top of Golgotha. As we know, everyone has a little bit different make-up. For example, when I know that my team is likely going to loose its game, I’ll turn off the television. I don’t enjoy witnessing a big loss. And from that you might imagine that I would not have been at the crucifixion. But Mary was not that sort of person. “Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.” In what capacity was she there? Did she look at this as the death of her little boy? Was her faith great enough to realize that this was the sacrifice which was purchasing her redemption? Was she there as one of the disciples of the Lord, and she felt that He deserved her encouragement? What was going through here mind? We will probably never know, and we certainly don’t know right now. But you must give her credit for her faithfulness in being there, under the most excruciating circumstances.
And then what happened to the disciples after that night? Didn’t most of them quickly scatter? But did Mary? Fifty days later, as we enter the Book of Acts, there was Mary among the disciples and other church members. “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.” This is the last that we hear of Mary. Not even the Lord’s most beloved saints live on earth forever.
In her faith and faithfulness, in just about everything that I’ve said thus far, Mary is to be praised and imitated
Stemming almost entirely from Roman Catholicism, some of the fables about Mary include… The immaculate conception. Many outside Catholicism think that this has reference to the conception of Jesus, but not so. Catholic doctrine teaches that Mary was conceived and born without sin. She was not shapen in iniquity nor conceived in sin as David claimed.
Coming out of this heresy, the next is that Mary was as sinless as Christ himself. But beyond the obvious the Bible even describes a couple of things about her which were sinful. “There is none righteous, no not one” – not even Mary.
Third, they claim that she remained a virgin and never had relations with Joseph or any other man. In order to perpetuate this idea they have to deny the scriptures which declare that Jesus had brothers and sisters. And Matthew 1 says that Joseph “knew her not till she had brother forth her firstborn son,” suggesting that he did know her afterwards.
Their fourth fable is sometimes called “the great assumption.” I think that the terminology is nearly perfect, although I use a different definition. The Catholic fable is that Mary, who was sinless, was taken up into heaven without dying. Since she was sinless, she had no reason to die, so like Enoch and Elijah, she was “assumed” into heaven. But that assumption is without any reason or scripture. Not even Enoch or Elijah were sinless, but that still doesn’t mean that Mary was translated to heaven.
The fifth fable is perhaps the most damnable. Catholicism says that Mary is the mediatrix of salvation beside Christ. They say that Jesus still listens to his sinless mother, and acts upon her advice. He saves those whom she tells him to save, and He does whatever else she tells him. But of course the Bible says that “there is one … (only) one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” Yet, despite what the Bible says, faithful Catholics pray to Mary before they pray to either God the Father or God the Son, foolishly thinking that she has sway over Christ. Furthermore they think that she cares more for them than Christ does. Foolishness.
Despite the heresies which men have built around her, Mary is worthy of our consideration and study.